Many states require that boats towing waterskiers employ a brightly colored flag to alert nearby boats to the presence of the skier and/or ski rope. Beginning at the time the skier and/or the ski rope are in the water, the flag must be held in a raised position, visible to other boats, until either the skier is up on his or her skis, or the skier and/or rope are back inside the boat.
Many states further require that an observer other than the driver, located within the boat, be responsible for raising and lowering the flag. In addition to raising and lowering the flag, the observer often has other responsibilities including, but not limited to, assisting the skier in and out of the water, deploying and retrieving the ski rope, communicating the position and status of the skier to the driver, and ensuring the overall safety of the skier. Each of these responsibilities is time sensitive and must be coordinated with both the skier and the driver. As such, the observer often finds that manually deploying and constantly holding a ski flag in the raised position hinders his or her ability to perform the other responsibilities.
It should be understood that the same regulations generally apply equally to all water sports in which a person enters the water surrounding a watercraft including, but not limited to, wakeboarding, tubing, knee boarding and swimming.
In view of the foregoing there is a need for an observer-activated system for maintaining the flag in a visible or otherwise raised position while a person and/or a rope are in the water and maintaining the flag in a stowed or otherwise lowered position while the person is visibly atop the surface of the water or within the boat. The present invention addresses one or more of these needs.